Sludge Watch ==> Ontario - Prince Edward County halts sludge spreading - fact finding

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Prince Edward County is a beautiful area two hours east of Toronto on Lake 
Ontario.
It is opening up as the new wine growing playground - real estate values are 
up - fancy fine dining - and shallow limestone soils with water all around 
make it ideally slated for high end tourism.

Sewage sludge spreading is a risk in the Prince Edward County  area due to 
the risk to groundwater and runoff to surface water.  Also the wine industry 
and tourism can be hurt by the spreading of muncipal sewage wastes - not the 
kind branding that the fledgling tourism industry needs.  Their consultant 
needs to look at the soil and hydrogeology of the area and assess the risks 
from sensitive receptor sites.

It should be noted that the Prince Edward County councilors put a halt to 
sludge spreading only for the winter months - when sludge spreading is not 
permitted anyway.

See: Vintner worried about sludge plans:
http://list.web.net/archives/sludgewatch-l/2006-July/001624.html
.................................


County puts brief halt on sludge spreading
Belleville Intelligencer; 2007 12 19; Posted By Bruce Bell

http://www.intelligencer.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=823647&auth=Bruce+Bell

Prince Edward County will not allow the spreading of biosolids on farm
fields until a study into the practice is completed.

Council voted overwhelmingly here to ban sewage waste solids for at  least
four months until a consultant completes a review of the County's
biosolids management program.

Public works commissioner Steve Carroll said staff will work with the
municipality's environmental advisory committee to establish the
guidelines for the review before a decision is made on how to manage the
waste.

"There's a huge list of chemicals in the sludge so we'll hire a
consultant and they can determine what our best interests are short-term
and long-term and then we'll go from there," he said. "I think it's
pretty clear, at some point in time we will not be putting this on land
anymore, so we have to gather all the information and develop an
appropriate policy for disposal."

Carroll told council spreading sludge on fields is the cheapest method  of
disposal and the costs would rise substantially to ship the waste to
landfill sites outside the municipality.

Coun. Sandy Latchford spearheaded an effort to have an all-out ban  placed
on spreading on land, but the majority of council balked at the  motion,
citing costs of alternative methods.

"I'm disappointed to hear people focus so much on the cost when it took
us more than 50 years to ban asbestos and that has cost billions of
dollars to clean up," she said. "I think we are playing with people's
health and our land and it needs to stop."

Prince Edward County currently has 330 acres of land on six farms
certified for the biosolids spreading program, which is monitored by the
Ministry of Environment.

Carroll said tanks were emptied this fall at both the Picton and
Wellington wastewater treatment plants to provide storage through winter
months.

"Ministry guidelines state we have to have so much storage, based on
production so we should be OK for the winter," he said. "The new plant  in
Picton will really help because it will increase our storage capacity
substantially.

"When those tanks are full, you have to do something right away, so the
new plant will give us some time to make arrangements for the disposal."